Ashen Wool
by Hawkflight7
Summary: It was weird being back in Atlas after the effort she had gone through to leave, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant.
1. Chapter 1

**Ashen Wool**

**-complacency**

**Summary: It was weird being back in Atlas after the effort she had gone through to leave, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant.**

**Well, I got a new series going for the fluffiest pair in V7, hope you all enjoy. I'll be switching between this and Moonstruck for a bit while working on some smaller things as well or some long lost projects of mine.**

Weiss raises her glass to her lips, taking a moment to enjoy her coffee before she joins her team in the briefing room for her third mission as a licensed huntress. When she sets the glass down it clinks softly on the table, followed soon after by another clink.

She looks up to see Marrow slip into the seat opposite of her, trails of steam rising up from the coffee mug he had just set on the table. For a moment he's just gazing at her, as if he's trying to figure out how to word whatever is on his mind.

"So, what would you have done to help with our systemic societal issues?"

"Excuse me?"

"Mm," his fingers tapped away at his mug for a few seconds. "It was just weird hearing a Schnee talk about causing problems for a faunus and not being... you know, snide about it."

_Oh_. He was talking about what she had said back in the mine yesterday when they were going after that geist grimm.

His head tipped to the side, as if studying her now. "You don't actually blame yourself for what happened, do you? Even if you had wanted to help as a child there wasn't much you could have done."

She glanced down to the cup she was cradling in her hands. "I know, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I didn't even try to understand what was going on. As a child I was too focused on living up to my father's expectations, even when I disobeyed him and went to Beacon I still thought all faunus were like those in the White Fang." She blinked at the ringlets that appeared in her drink from Nora jumping up and down a good twenty feet away."Besides, I'm not the heiress anymore and I doubt Whitley will care to change anything to better the faunus' working condition when he takes over. Even then, Father wouldn't allow it. He takes pride in having prices so low that he can just run everyone else out of business." Like Flynt's father.

"What if you were still the heiress?" She glanced up at Marrow's words.

"If I were..." She hadn't thought about it, she hadn't bothered after her father took away the title from her and gave it to Whitley instead. Though, after befriending Blake and the others... she had a few ideas before, nothing really fleshed out: just simple things to up the quality of life for their employees. Most of which were faunus. You would never see the privileged people of Atlas digging dust out of mines. It was unfortunate, but the truth was that even if she offered jobs to humans in the mines most of them wouldn't take it. They only wanted to run the shops that sold their dust, not get their own hands dirty alongside the 'trash.'

"I suppose I would put more resources into making sure the mines are stable. So if there was an explosion it wouldn't take the whole mine with it, like what happened back then. I could employ a couple huntresses and huntsmen rather than robots to look after the miners in case of grimm or maybe even a few soldiers from the army."

"I doubt Ironwood would mind helping out a bit."

She gave a nod of her head. "But beyond that... increased wages. I don't care about building a ton of profit, if I can put a bunch of money back into the company to make it better, that would be fine. As a trained huntress I could just scope out any new areas myself to determine if it was safe to set up a mine there. Umm oh, I had an idea before of setting up a daycare for employees, so they don't have to pay extra while they're working or worry about their children, especially if both parents are working. And any parent that was stay-at-home could apply for the jobs that would give them. It would help the faunus in Mantle rise out of poverty at least."

"Have you noticed that all the children Jim-"

"Jaune," she corrected him.

"Right." Marrow scratched lightly at a spot just behind his ear. "All those kids are human, you don't see a single faunus among them."

"Because the public only wants to pay for human schools?" She knew exactly what he was getting at. "I would like to offer any faunus - whether they work for the company or not - to have a free elementary school house just for them. That way they don't have to deal with the bullying or increased cost for schooling. But that's kind-of not possible right now." For obvious aforementioned reasons.

She could only hope Robyn Hill would help the faunus once she was elected. It certainly seemed to be one of her promises to the public.

"Hey, Weiss." She nearly jumped in her seat at Blake's voice, she wished her teammate would make more sound when she walked. "Once you're done you'll be coming on a mission with Yang and me." Weiss turned to face her as Blake spoke.

"So soon?"

"Yeah, you said you wanted a search and destroy mission, right?"

"Yes," Weiss said glancing at Marrow, who was currently sipping at his coffee.

"Is that okay? You can talk with Clover if you want a different assignment."

"It's fine," she assured Blake. Weiss simply hadn't been expecting to leave so soon since she hadn't gone into the mission briefing room yet. That and... Marrow looked slightly disappointed to have their conversation cut short.

It wasn't the kind of thing she usually talked about: hypotheticals that were unlikely to happen. But she had been enjoying the conversation, if just to try and think of other ways she could help now that she wasn't the heiress. Surely there was some things she could do as a huntress to atone for her past mistakes?

"I'll meet you out there in a bit."

Blake merely nodded her head before she started walking to the door.

Weiss drained what little was left of her coffee before she stood up. "Sorry. Maybe we can talk another time?"

"Sure thing." Marrow's tail was swaying slowly in the air as he seemed to get lost in thought.

With an apologetic smile Weiss turned around and followed Blake out so she could ask about the details of this mission she had acquired before she ended up going in blind.


	2. Chapter 2

**-grace**

**I didn't mean for this to take so long but it got really busy at work with everything going on and took awhile to write due to me being exhausted most of the time. But here's the second chapter, **_**finally**_**. So enjoy and tell me what you think!**

**And mild trigger warning: for ptsd.**

"Do you want to come with me, Ruby?" Penny's eyes were bright and shining even in the fluorescent light: not the sort of thing you could say no to. With an apologetic look at Weiss Ruby agreed, immediately getting a bear hug in return.

A few of her teammates and JNR laughed at seeing something they hadn't expected to ever see again: Penny and her antics. Weiss smiled as well, saying more with her eyes than anything that it was fine. It's not like her and Ruby had been going to hang out anyway, they would have just been doing a mission together and to be frank she was happy to not be pulled onto theirs. Transport missions were the worst, especially if it was protecting supplies destined for Amity Tower.

"Alright then, who's next?" Clover asked.

Blake and Yang paired up next, not something she wanted to tag along with considering how close they were. It would have felt like she was intruding. The same went with Ren and Nora.

Jaune was already out in the streets of Mistral helping children to 'fearlessly' cross the road.

Finally most of everyone else had left, leaving... "Weiss, Marrow, you two will be dealing with some grimm. The mission was fast-tracked this morning by the Schnee Dust Company, but it should be a simple search and destroy."

"Why did they want priority?" Marrow asked, still sipping on his coffee, though it looked to have gone cold.

"Apparently the grimm are horded up in some cave that they wish to excavate for dust. Even if they're not making a ton of deliveries with the embargo it would seem they want to stockpile as much dust for when it gets lifted."

"And turn a quick profit to make up for lost time?"

"Precisely," Clover said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. The leader of the Ace Ops had glanced at her, almost as if in apology for his subordinate's lack of tact. Not that she could blame Marrow, and he was right about their intentions: in that regard her father was easy to read.

"Figures," Marrow muttered under his breath before downing the rest of his coffee and turning to Weiss. He opened his mouth to speak - paused as if just realizing who he had been sitting next to when he had been speaking earlier - then parted his lips once more, "Uh, sorry. Shall we go? Or I can probably do this myself-"

"It's fine. I'll accompany you," Weiss said with a smile, to make sure he knew her feelings weren't hurt. She turned to Clover. "They didn't say what kind of grimm it was, did they?"

"No. They gave us just enough information to make a mission out of it."

"Alright, then." Marrow got up a little too quickly, probably still embarrassed from his slip-up. "Ready to go?" he asked Weiss as Clover shut off the mission board before heading out himself to meet up with Qrow.

"Yes." she said, unsure if he had been hoping for the opposite or not.

It was quiet on their walk out and the initial bullhead ride down to Mantle to grab a vehicle to head out into the frozen tundra. All in relative silence. The standard military bot was in the driver's seat, Marrow sat in the middle, leaving Weiss with the 'shotgun' seat... or a rather uncomfortable floor in the back and that would just be awkward if she sat back there.

The atmosphere had been awkward enough getting here so she might as well clear it rather than robotically doing the mission and wondering if she needed to go out of her way so she didn't get paired with Marrow again. Not a pleasant thought considering how she avoided getting paired with half the people in those mission briefings as it was.

"I was thinking... I wouldn't just want to raise the wages of the faunus that work for me," Weiss began, glancing at Marrow to see if he was still pretending he didn't exist before continuing at the interested twitch of his tail. "I would like to raise all of them and the easiest way to do that would be to raise the wages in all of Mantle. That way it would be helping everyone, human and faunus that are subjected to poverty."

"But that just might increase the cost of living and other expenses."

"I know." She turned to him, meeting his crystal blue gaze. "It would have to be a slow increase over a couple years, a few more lien here and there. But if I was on the council or Robyn was... I think it would be more plausible than my father reinstating me as the heiress."

"So you're hoping Robyn will win the council seat?"

Obviously Weiss couldn't run now, she didn't meet the requirements and even if she did dealing with Salem was the top priority. Still... there had been a slight clip in his voice. "Don't you want her to win? She wants equality for everyone down in Mantle and that's what we have been talking about-"

"Yes, it's her selling point to the people and I don't dislike her, but the methods her group uses sometimes... aren't the best. Even if the faunus get on more equal ground with just the humans down in Mantle... it won't mean anything if they don't go through the proper channels. It'll just be like another White Fang movement."

Well, that made a lot more sense now. She had been wondering why a faunus would be against such promises. "But if she is on the Council that wouldn't be an issue, would it? There would be no reason for her to try anything even moderately illegal."

"I'm not worried about if she's elected. I'm worried about what lengths she'll go to if she isn't. I don't want her to be an enemy, so it would be best if she stayed on the right side of the law."

"You really think she would turn criminal for her cause?" Weiss asked, brow raised.

"Well, with a name like Happy Huntresses it seems like a ridiculous notion, doesn't it?" He smiled at her, but it was brief. "I just worry about the future. I'm lucky I'm skilled enough to be a huntsman and got the proper training, but not every faunus even has the option or will to drag themselves out. There's plenty of people down in Mantle who refuse to go to the academy or join the military for a better life simply because they would be working with humans." That sounded just like the sect of the White Fang her team had fought in Vale, led by Adam who had made sure to feed their hatred. Which just led into an endless cycle of racism.

She wasn't sure what to say. "I'm sorry." Didn't seem to cut it, though she tried.

"It's not your fault. When you're raised as a minority all you hear is how you and your people are treated and who's at fault. They either want to band together and fight that enemy or carry on in life hoping not to be noticed. Its just sometimes they take it too far."

A rather consistent problem in their world, at least it seemed like it... The topic at hand was getting a bit depressing, as nice as it was to have someone to talk to about bettering the world. There was too much to do in the present to worry about the future right now. First they had to secure a future for everyone before thinking so far ahead.

"How much longer is it suppose to be before we reach the cave?" Weiss paused in her questioning, wondering for a moment... "Is it further than Amity Tower?"

"No. It's not that far out, we should reach it in another fifteen minutes or so."

"Thank god." Weiss sighed. "I always want to fall asleep when making a supply run to the tower. It takes forever to get there and there's really not that much grimm or bandits on the path usually."

Marrow chuckled. "Well, if you get sleepy you can just use me as a body pillow."

The tips of her ears went red before she felt the burn in her cheeks, not that Marrow noticed, looking out at the landscape around them, being much more dutiful than her in keeping an eye out for the grimm they were trying to track down. Though, there hadn't been enough information to determine if it was the type of grimm that needed to leave its place of residence.

Weiss still wasn't sure how to respond to his comment, if he even realized what he had said. From what she had observed of him so far he seemed to talk without thinking more often than not.

Marrow caught her gaze a second later though, unblinking before his gaze fell on the light tinge across her cheeks. He shifted in his seat, gaze snapping back to the 'path' in front of them. "I didn't mean it that way-" What other way was there? "Just... if you get tired it's okay to rest up. I'll keep an eye on you- _damn it_."

Her cheeks felt like they were on fire before he even finished the sentence. She could already feel another awkward silence ready to descend on them. Well, he clearly wasn't going to reverse uno himself out of this. She knew what he had _meant _of course, but the implication beyond that was... unprofessional to say the least. And the idea of resting her cheek on his shoulder while she dozed off or even resting her head against his thigh were... the only images that currently floated in her head.

It was the sole reason the burn in her cheeks wasn't going away.

"I know." Weiss finally got her lips to move.

Marrow hung his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." If he had dog ears instead of a tail she was sure they would be drooping right about now.

"It's fine, really."

The car slowed to a crawl before stopping completely and Weiss hesitantly opened the door before slipping out of the vehicle, glancing around as soon as her boots touched the snow. It wasn't anything special, the cave looked like all the others they had passed on their way here, nothing to indicate grimm lay inside: like human bones at the entrance for instance.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" she asked, trying to break the silence as Marrow slipped out of the van after her.

He glanced down at the scroll in his hand, after closing the door. The robot inside shut off the engine for now, the rumblings slowing to a halt. "Yep. It says this is it."

She wasn't sure what it was, but... something felt off about this place. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, goosebumps forming along her arms. "Do you think they lied about it being a grimm?"

Marrow frowned. "Well, it doesn't look like bandits live here. So there's not much else it could be."

"A wild animal, then?" she asked, glancing to him, already knowing what was wrong with her hypothesis: no bones, of any kind.

He met her gaze, the earlier embarrassment gone, the blue orbs only filled with concern. "Your intuition tipping you off?"

That wasn't the word she would have used. "This place feels wrong."

"The air is different," he agreed, tail swishing slowly behind him. "Come on." Without a glance back at her he started forward.

Weiss waited a few seconds before following him, expecting something to jump out of the black maw of the cave. But nothing happened when she stepped forward, pulling up the flashlight app on her scroll and letting it hang on her hip as they crossed the threshold.

Marrow was a few steps ahead of her, eyes roaming back and forth along the tunnel, tail twitching behind him when the ground sloped down. There weren't going to find a nest down there, were they? Weiss stopped at the lip, prompting Marrow to glance back over his shoulder. "Do you... want to wait at the entrance?"

That was the last thing she wanted: to flee like a little girl from the monster beneath her bed. Marrow had been right earlier: the air was different. It felt like there was a weight pressing down on her shoulders the further they went it... It sent alarm bells ringing in her head, but she couldn't figure out _why_ for the life of her. She wanted to suggest that they come back later with more huntsmen or not at all.

A chill had started to crawl down her spine. "No. Just... don't go far."

Weiss walked softly down the slope to his side, feeling a little silly from her actions but her pride was slipping away. As they moved deeper she could see the soft glow of dust embedded in the walls: the reason for the Schnee Dust Company's interest. The rock was rough, untouched, a few jagged sections lay scattered about the tunnel, like chipped teeth.

It made her feel like she was walking into the depths of hell. Her eyes widened a second later, recognizing the feeling in the air that she had first thought to be dread. "Marrow," she hissed under her breath. "We need to go back up, _now_."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Marrow just beginning to turn to her a _screech_ filled the air, echoing off the walls. Weiss crashed to the ground, hands moving up to cover her ears as little pinpricks of red showed in the darkness below. She felt her body go stone cold. _The same little red lights from the well... swimming in the darkness as the grimm shambled forward, mouths gaping right before that harrowing sound bounced off the brick walls, seeping any strength straight from her bones._

The ground seemed to turn to mud, crawling up her knees and sucking her back down whenever she tried to push herself up. Too many, there was too many. Her breathing had increased quickly, her head filled with the panicked sounds of her gasps as she waited for the next scream from below.

_Blake's glassy eyes staring back at her as she laid on the dirt floor-_

"_Stay_!" Marrow's shout shattered the memories flickering behind her eyelids. She forced her eyes open, glancing up to see Marrow looking back at her, hand still raised to point below at the pack- no, the horde of Apathy down below. "Are you okay?"

Okay? _Okay? _She could feel her cheeks burn, this wasn't suppose to happen. She wasn't suppose to be cowering before some grimm in front of one of the Ace Ops, not even able to stand up...

Weiss gritted her teeth, pushing hard at the ground to get up from her hands and knees, stumbling to her feet she _almost_ fell over right back on her ass. With a shaky breath she pointed myrtenaster down, summoning a few glyphs as she spun the chamber to her vial of blue dust. Blue glyphs appeared sporadically beneath the grimm, an icy haze rushing forward to cover the horde directly in front of them. It took a few seconds, but they had all the time in the world thanks to Marrow's semblance for the ice to harden over the black bodies.

_I almost died_, again.

The thought rung through her mind as she switched the vial in her chamber once more. She knew time was flowing normally, but it felt like it had slowed to a crawl between the silence and her own uninterrupted fumbling. _I would've died if I came alone_, if it were only Marrow... she wasn't sure what would happen. He could stop them, but he couldn't move while he did it. His weapon could though, as long as nothing stopped it in its tracks.

Her blood felt like ice when she flicked her fingers up, summoning more glyphs, spaced out for each cluster of grimm. It only took a moment before the earth shot up from the ground, protruding in various sized spikes, shattering the ice and the grimm within.

Weiss let out her breath she had been holding, having waited the entire time for another screech to echo up from below and send her crashing back to the floor. But it was quiet.

Marrow lowered his hand after the last grimm had been killed on impact, moving to her side and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked once more.

She could say yes, but it would be a lie. "I'm sorry, I-"

"It's okay. Do you want to head back? I can take care of any stragglers."

"No." She couldn't just leave him to clean up after she had almost gotten the both of them killed, unable to do anything because of their screams. Because she immediately fell into a flashback, panicking. Her hands had formed into fists, nails digging into her skin. He was never going to go on another mission with her after this. How could he possibly trust her to have his back?

She wasn't even sure if it was her current state of mind or the lingering effects of the Apathy that were making her have such negative thoughts.

"No," she repeated, taking in another breath to try and calm herself. "I'll go with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Though, she understood why he wouldn't want her incompetent ass tagging along. "My team came across a pack on our way to Atlas back on Anima. We had taken shelter on an abandoned farm and the owner had apparently died in his sleep after leading some Apathy to his town to try and control the emotions of the people there: to stop them from alerting nearby grimm. It backfired, obviously since they were just skeletons when we got there. But we didn't know what we were dealing with until it was almost too late, we-" Almost died, gave up hope in their mission for a time; there was too much to say about the whole ordeal and she didn't even know what to begin. "Now that we know what were dealing with here I'll be fine. I just didn't expect to find another pack, a _bigger _pack." She suppressed the shiver that wanted to crawl down her spine.

There was a frown on Marrow's lips, but he nodded after another second passed. "Alright. But if you need to take a break, just ask."

Weiss nodded her head, letting him lead the way down into the tunnels. They were down there in the darkness for over an hour, looking for every nook and cranny they could find where more Apathy might be hiding. Weiss used her glyphs a few more times, but it was mainly used for a flat surface to bounce Marrow's weapon off of, to keep it spinning after her threw it and used his semblance to keep the grimm from crying out and alerting any in the immediate vicinity to their presence.

Luckily most of them were just stragglers that didn't happen to be with the initial horde. They found less than a dozen scattered in the tunnels before coming up empty after hitting every dead-end they could find. Once Marrow was sure there was none left they made their way back up to the surface. He had been murmuring assurances the whole time: telling her everything was fine, she didn't need to worry so much, that _they_ would finish the mission together.

She wasn't sure how to feel about the whole ordeal, her body feeling heavy and sluggish she let Marrow help her into the van, writing it off as her simply being tired. Weiss let her head fall to the side, cheek brushing against rough fabric, darker-toned hair tickling her forehead as she fell into the murky pits of sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**-lethargy**

**Hello again! Have an early Easter present! And I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's not the most action-packed but it is essential to the plot. **

He had just closed the door and settled into the seat Weiss had occupied on their way out here when he felt her lean against him. "Weiss?" Marrow turned his head to see her eyes were already closed, unable to answer him due to how fast she had passed out. He couldn't say he was surprised after seeing her response to the Apathy in the cave. She had to be mentally exhausted... too far gone to realize she had been embarrassed about doing such a thing barely two hours ago.

His lips threatened to curl down, but he shook his head softly as to not disturb her.

She needed the rest. Hell, he needed to tell her team what had happened when he got back, see if any of them needed a counselor after having to meet the Apathy like that back in Anima. And... he should have noticed it sooner as well. Weiss had noticed immediately, though she hadn't been able to put it into words until the last moment. But he was a trained huntsman, he should have thought of all the possible grimm it could be and account for it.

It would have saved Weiss from having to go through that again, anyway. The way her eyes filled with fear back in the cave... legs collapsing beneath her... trembling and murmuring-

His tail twitched.

She was doing it again, not loudly enough for him to actually make out what she was saying, but it was in the same panicked whisper. He glanced down to see her fingers twitching against the seat, curling and uncurling at the air, as if she was trying to reach something... She was having a nightmare, she went to sleep to escape reality and got sucked right back into her memories of that farm.

He couldn't let her sleep.

Marrow reached out to grasp her shoulder, but his scroll buzzed and he dug it out from his pocket, glancing at the screen to see it was Clover - not someone he could ignore, unfortunately. With a glance at her hand he reached out with his own to lay his fingers on hers. For a moment her fingers stopped twitching, then shifted to curl around his own.

It wasn't much, but it was all he could do for her at the moment.

He pressed the button to answer the call, opting for just voice rather than the video option Clover had tried for. "Hello?" Marrow tried to keep his voice low, but didn't want to inadvertently cause Clover to worry by whispering either.

"Hey, just wanted to check in." Clover's voice came over a little grainy due to the distance between the coms. "How is the mission going?"

He took a moment to clear his thoughts, used to Clover calling him whenever he went on a mission alone or with someone else besides an Ace Op. It was because he was still new to the team, perhaps a bit... naive at times, but it would likely stop in another month or so once Clover got more comfortable with him. "It was a pack of Apathy, but we cleared it out." He glanced almost subconsciously at Weiss who had stopped murmuring in her sleep. _Good. _"We're on our way back now."

"That was fast. Do you want to pick out another mission when you get back?"

Normally he would, but he really should check on Weiss after this. "Not today."

"What about Weiss? She might be able to join one of her teammates for another if they're already done as well."

He personally didn't think that was a good idea. Besides, he wasn't going to wake her up right now incase she got startled out of a nightmare or something - not with Clover on the line, anyway. Marrow would rather not mention her breakdown in the caves until after he had talked to her about it; he didn't want to go behind Weiss' back and essentially tell Clover she was unfit for missions at the moment. "She's asleep, a little too much excitement after the last few days."

Clover chuckled. "Understandable. Alright, I'll let you guys take it easy for now then. And-"

"And I'll have a full report ready for you by the time you get back," Marrow finished Clover's sentence for him. His words were met with another chuckle.

"Got the routine down, I see. I'll catch you guys later." After another second passed the scroll went silent in his ear and Marrow slipped it back into his pocket.

With a sigh he turned to see Weiss was still quiet, fingers unmoving against his hand. She didn't appear to still be having a nightmare, maybe he could let her sleep for a little while longer then. He was sure she was still exhausted simply from getting to Atlas from Anima along with the rest of her team.

He turned his attention to the surroundings, watching as the snow began to fall from the sky once again, even though it had already coated the ground days ago. The kingdom of Atlas was just an endless sea of white outside the city, there were no little towns here. You either lived crammed into Mantle or high up in an overly comfy house in Atlas. There weren't many options between the two: it was either poverty or riches.

Well... Weiss by all accounts wanted to change that, but it clearly wasn't a top priority right now. She was hoping for Robyn to do it, not that he could blame her. Though even without her fancy title people were likely to listen to her simply because she was a Schnee. Lucky her. Once Salem was defeated she could come back and help fix their issues or forget about it and live happy in her mansion... Like the rest of Atlas. A little part of him wanted to be realistic rather than just hopeful.

He knew what it took to climb to the top from the bottom: something most people didn't appreciate. He just hoped Weiss kept that kind caring heart on her shoulder like a badge rather than stomping all over it.

Speaking of... he could see the rise of Mantle's wall in the distance, just ten minutes out or so. He should probably wake her before someone saw her drained as she was, sleeping on him. At least she didn't drool.

It took him a moment but he disentangled his fingers from hers, watching for a second to make sure they didn't immediately twitch in his absence. He rested his hand on her shoulder, shaking her softly. "Weiss? Time to get up. We're almost at Mantle." She shifted, murmuring something too soft for him to hear and he poked her shoulder to try and get her attention once more. "Weiss?"

She jerked against him, sitting up rather quickly while blinking at her surroundings. Weiss had clearly been expecting a dorm room and a bed, not a van and Marrow.

"You alright? Get enough sleep for now?"

It seemed to take a second for the words to register, she met his gaze only for her cheeks to turn pink a second later, obviously just realizing she _had _used him as pillow. "Of course."

His lips threatened to pull down into a frown once more. She couldn't really be trying to act like nothing had happened out there, could she? "You sure? You were muttering in your sleep." Not that he heard anything other than bits and pieces of syllables, but it had been clear she wasn't dreaming about a field of kittens.

And Weiss seemed to get his underlying message, because she suddenly wouldn't look at him. A common tactic if someone were lying or about to lie. He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt though, hoping she realized he was on her side here. He simply didn't want a repeat performance of what had happened in the cave and if she denied it... he would have no other choice than to go to Clover about it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" What exactly had happened at that farm, she hadn't given him many details, just a rough outline.

His gaze lowered when her fingers curled against her thighs. "No."

He nearly grit his teeth. "Are you going to take a break from missions, then?"

She glanced up at him, fingers loosening their grip. Her gaze met his, uncertainty flickering across her face. Did she not trust him? They were in the same business, hunting grimm and the like. Or was it simply because he was a hunter tied to the military while she wasn't? There was another possibility as well-

"Sorry." Her gaze dropped away once more.

Marrow sighed. He was being too hard on her after everything, but... he really just wanted to help and he wanted her to know that. "No, I'm sorry. But you should talk to someone about what happened as it's getting in the way of your work." He gave her a moment to interject, say she had - or tried at the very least - when she didn't he continued, "I'm not saying you have to talk to me. But you should talk to one of your teammates about it-"

"I... don't want to. Can't." Weiss sighed, leaning forward to rest her head in her hands. "They don't take it seriously."

"It sounds like you all almost died at the farm, though-"

"Sure, if not for Maria." Weiss glanced to him, peering through her fingers, mouth opening for a moment as if to continue and then closing.. There was something she was leaving out, but he didn't want to press her when she just started to respond to him. She sat back up, staring at the looming wall of Mantle for a moment before muttering, "I almost died back at Haven, if not for Jaune unlocking his aura I would have. And today I almost got the two of us killed." There was a twitch in her jaw. "I'm sorry."

Marrow glanced out the window to see they were rolling up to the check-in station now, the van starting to slow. It didn't leave him was a lot of room to talk before the low ranking officer would check them through. "Forget about that. Let's grab you something to eat and figure out what would be best for you." He got the feeling she didn't want to stop going on missions entirely. It was possible today had just been a breaking point for her with the Apathy involved, that it was a fluke and she would recover in a few days and be fine. That seemed to be her best-case scenario: that she could just power through her ptsd.

He didn't believe that and he hoped that she didn't think it would work because one of her teammates had used such a strategy to deal with their own shortcomings.

"You don't actually believe I can still go on missions, do you?" Weiss was whispering now as the vehicle came to a halt. Evidently thinking along the same lines as him. "I don't want to burden the others with this."

Marrow paused, finger hovering over the button to lower the window. "If you would rather your team not know about the cave I won't tell them. But like I said before: we will figure something out."

He went ahead and pushed the button before she could reply, ending the conversation for now as he spoke with guard to be let back into Mantle.


End file.
